Luke Tudball's spiky porcupine puppet helped the Tasty Monster Productions artistic director tell children what it's like to be an actor appearing in one of the education-oriented shows the theater presents at local schools. (Sharon Lee Tegler)

Caleb Smith wore a broad smile as he walked into Severna Park Library’s Community Fair with his mom Brooke and dad Jay. Clutching a bright blue balloon and a “passport,” the little boy encountered the first of 11 “hometown heroes” – Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Morris.

Seated behind a table featuring a game board and books like “What Does a Juror Do?” Morris signed and stamped Caleb’s passport while explaining what it’s like to be a judge.

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“I felt it important to give children a positive and accurate idea of what we do so my daughter Simone and I created a game that simulates a car crash resulting in ‘a case’ — a case where the kids help a judge determine who is at fault.”

Caleb and family next visited the Friends of Kinder Farm Park table where hometown heroes Barb Buchleitner and Sharon Haghighi highlighted books about farms and a small replica of the old-fashioned hand-cranked telephone used at the Kinder farmhouse in the 1930s.

Cpl. Scott McAdoo, from the county police department, drew quite a crowd to the “Police and Community Together” table where there was a display of tools police use. Among them were a duty belt (minus weapons) and a gas mask that Caleb, Nolan Comet and other young children were thrilled to try on.

Equally eye-catching was the spiny porcupine puppet Tasty Monster Productions director Luke Tudball used to illustrate the role of actors in the education-oriented shows his touring theater company presents at local schools.

Del. Heather Bagnall (also a co-founder of Tasty Monster Productions) used her skills as an educator and story teller to explain to kids how local, state and national government works. Keeping the discussions simple, the District 33 delegate described problems people come to her with and asked them to imagine solutions.

Roland Anighton, a career Anne Arundel County firefighter, was most definitely a hit. He was giving out bright red replica firemen’s helmets which pals Sydney Davis and Brooke Stiles from Annapolis donned immediately. However, they also listened intently as Anighton described exciting job opportunities for firefighters and paramedics.

Moving on from Anighton’s table, the girls spotted Nisa Popper’s table which was popular with the littlest visitors. A Librarian 1 with Severna Park Community Library, she’d assembled a variety of fun-to-read storybooks, plush animals, and animated puppets along with Sneaks, the library mascot. Sydney and Brooke loved Popper’s lifelike goat and dog puppets and couldn’t resist cuddling the critters. They giggled when the goat emitted an early baa.

Proudly adding her stamp and sticker to each child’s “passport to a career,” Popper said she’s hoping some will become librarians.

Elementary and middle school students particularly enjoyed talking to linguist John Busby representing K-12 Academic Outreach for the National Security Agency. Busby said NSA hopes to “inspire the next generation” offering careers in computing, engineering, language, law and international politics among other fields. In addition to handouts describing those careers, he gave students cryptologic puzzles challenging them to decrypt a foreign language cipher into English.

Watershed Stewards Academy representatives included Jessie Bradley, whose table held books focused on water, and program coordinator Noelle Chao who’d set up a “watershed runoff game”. The three-dimensional game featured a suburban landscape with miniature houses, cars, trees, roads, driveways and ponds. Sisters Arabella and Amberlin Gong were fascinated playing it by simulating rain with spray bottles and observing the effects of stormwater runoff.

Marine biologist Stacy Havard, from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, was surrounded by books featuring aquatic life including one called “Women Who Dive”.

“I dive,” she explained to Brenda Gutierrez and her mom Mary. “My job primarily involves studying Chesapeake Bay marine species including shrimp, fish and blue crabs along with underwater grasses that support them.

Meterologists and oceanographers Dan Fernandez and Anthony Santorelli from Anne Arundel Community College highlighted wide-ranging earth sciences careers including their own. Santorelli’s “cloud in a bottle” created using a clear glass bottle, minimal liquid and a pump amazed every child who tried it.

Araba Maze, the library associate who planned the community fair, was elated so many families attended. She and her fellow librarians made sure there were books on every table complimenting the careers represented.

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“The most rewarding thing about the fair is seeing that the people who attended were inspired to enter the library. It’s been great watching them come back out carrying armfuls of books,” she said.

Sunday picnic

Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church invites the community to attend their annual outdoor kick-off picnic on Sunday, September 8. This year’s theme is “Live into Hope” and the event will be bigger than ever with an afternoon of games, music and food. Free and open to all, the picnic will start at 12 p.m. For information, visit woodschurch.org.